There are few items in the world of food more difficult to dispose of than grease. And you should never take a shortcut by pouring it down the drain! So what should you do? The deep fryers at Stack Exchange offer their advice.

Is it really that bad to pour grease down the drain? Does it depend on the type? With bacon fat, I usually let it solidify in a cup lined with foil, and then throw it out. With used canola oil, I'm not quite sure what to do because it doesn't solidify. How do I toss my used cooking oil?

Never pour grease or oil down the drain. We've had a few incidents in my neighborhood where the sewer pipes were clogged with fat, and a few people's basements flooded with sewage as a result.

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For fats that solidify, let them do so, then pitch them in your regular garbage. Chill grease in the fridge if you need to get it to harden up. For ones that don't solidify, pour them into a sealable (hopefully non-recyclable) bottle, and throw the whole container away with your regular garbage.

It's possible that a recycling center in your area might accept cooking fats and oils as part of a recycling effort. In Maryland, ours accepts motor oil.

For restaurants, some places require a system for catching grease that has been washed down the sink. It's my understanding that they're fairly expensive (a couple thousand dollars), but the fines for not having one installed may be even more, and they're required for new restaurants.

It's also possible to compost some used vegetable oil. It can make great food for earthworms. But a be careful to make sure you're doing it right, as large quantities of oil used to cook meat can attract vermin to your compost, and lots of oil in your compost can form hydrophobic barriers, reducing water & airflow.

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Perhaps a safer option: After allowing used oil to cool you should put it in a small sealed container and throw it out with the trash. You can save empty jars for this purpose. If you produce large amounts of oil you may need to take it directly to your landfill, oil recycling station, or ask a local restaurant if you can drop off your oil there.

I advise against pouring it down the drain. It will clog overtime.

Also, you can reuse most oil several times. Deep-frying oil can be filtered and reused three to four times (more depending on the quality and your comfort). Bacon fat can also be filtered and then stored in your refrigerator.

You can store the used oil and use it later to saute or as an ingredient in cakes and breads that call for oil. You need to keep track of what you used it for, as you wouldn't want to put oil that you used to fry shrimp into cookies, for example, but that oil might work well to saute onions for shrimp tiki masala.

Bacon grease can likewise be reused. It's my personal favorite for frying onions used in heavy curries from northern India and hearty meat dishes like stews. Simply dump the grease into an old can or a Pyrex container, cover it in cling film or foil, and store it in the fridge for a week or two (but it can pick up odors, so don't plan on storing it for too long). You could also freeze it in cubes for future cooking, which would probably keep a year or so.

Other fats can be put to good use: chicken fat is used as a condiment in Central European Jewish food, for instance.

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